months were among the most desolate of my life. No one took the
slightest interest in me.

"Failing to find employment in Nottingham, I had to move away. I
was loath, very loath, to leave my dear widowed mother and my
native town, but I was compelled to do so, and to come to London.
In the great city I felt myself unutterably alone. I did not know a
soul excepting a brother-in-law, with whom I had not a particle of
communion.

"In many respects my new master very closely resembled the old one.
In one particular, however, he differed from him very materially,
and that was he made a great profession of religion. He believed in
the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and in the Church of which he was a
member, but seemed to be utterly ignorant of either the theory or
practice of experimental godliness. To the spiritual interests of
the dead world around him he was as indifferent as were the vicious
crowds themselves whom he so heartily despised. All he seemed to me
to want was to make money, and all he seemed to want me for was to
help him in the sordid selfish task.

"So it was work, work, work, morning, noon, and night. I was
practically a white slave, being only allowed my liberty on
Sundays, and an hour or two one night in the week, and even then
the rule was 'Home by ten o'clock, or the door will be locked
against you.' This law was rigidly enforced in my case, although my
employer knew that I travelled long distances preaching the Gospel
in which he and his wife professed so loudly to believe. To get
home in time, many a Sunday night I have had to run long distances,
after walking for miles, and preaching twice during the day."